NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2014-- The Payments Security Task Force (PST) today announced a forecast of participating acquirers who estimated that at least 47 percent of U.S. merchant terminals will be enabled for EMV chip technology by the end of 2015. The estimates are based on forecasts provided by acquirers representing approximately 80 percent of U.S. purchase volume.

Today's announcement complements a similar forecast from card issuers in August, where nine of the country's largest payment card issuers estimated they would issue more than 575 million chip-enabled payment cards by the end of 2015. The PST plans to update both card and terminal forecasts on a quarterly basis.

"This forecast reflects efforts across the industry over the past two years," said Chris McWilton, president, North American Markets, MasterCard. "Retailers, issuers, acquirers and others have addressed consumer concerns head-on and have begun to make the investments to further enhance the security of their payments. We will continue to work to deliver the same levels of security both in-store and online."

Formed in March 2014, the task force, which represents a diverse group of U.S. electronic payment industry players, is a collective effort that is initially focused on continuing the momentum of EMV chip implementation in the United States.

"The key to reducing fraud is close coordination and cooperation among card issuers, acquirers, merchants, device manufacturers and networks in the deployment of chip technology," said Ryan McInerney, president of Visa Inc. "That's one of the reasons Visa and MasterCard established the Payments Security Task Force. These numbers suggest that the industry is making substantial progress toward our goal of enhancing security at the checkout."

"Elavon is pleased to be part of an industry-wide team to drive standardization and best practices that will enhance consumer and merchant security," said Marianne Johnson, executive vice president of global product and innovation at Elavon.

"We are encouraged to see our industry believes almost half of U.S. merchant terminals will be ready for EMV just one short year from now," said Guy Chiarello, president, First Data. "First Data continues to educate our merchant clients about how EMV will impact their businesses. Whether large or small, we are encouraging all merchants to get onboard sooner rather than later and enabling them to ensure they are offering customers the most secure point-of-sale payment options."

"Global Payments is focused on enabling its customers with market-leading technologies, including EMV, NFC, tokenization and encryption, to minimize the risk of fraud and enhance value at the point of sale," said Jeff Sloan, chief executive officer, Global Payments Inc. "We remain diligent in our efforts to protect our customers and the consumer."

About the Payments Security Task Force

The Payments Security Task Force was announced in March 2014 to drive executive-level discussion that will enhance payments system security. The task force includes a diverse group of participants in the U.S. electronic payments industry including payment networks, banks of various sizes, credit unions, acquirers, retailers, point-of-sale device manufacturers and industry trade groups.